Comparison of Traditional and Ultrasound-Enhanced Electrospinning in Fabricating Nanofibrous Drug Delivery Systems.

Hakkarainen Hakkarainen,Lust Lust,Salmi Salmi,Semjonov Semjonov,Korhonen Korhonen,Nieminen Nieminen,Laidmäe Laidmäe,Haeggström Haeggström,Kõrkjas Kõrkjas,Heinämäki Heinämäki,Kogermann Kogermann

doi:10.3390/pharmaceutics11100495

Abstract

We investigated nozzleless ultrasound-enhanced electrospinning (USES) as means to generate nanofibrous drug delivery systems (DDSs) for pharmaceutical and biomedical applications. Traditional electrospinning (TES) equipped with a conventional spinneret was used as a reference method. High-molecular polyethylene oxide (PEO) and chitosan were used as carrier polymers and theophylline anhydrate as a water-soluble model drug. The nanofibers were electrospun with the diluted mixture (7:3) of aqueous acetic acid (90% v/v) and formic acid solution (90% v/v) (with a total solid content of 3% w/v). The fiber diameter and morphology of the nanofibrous DDSs were modulated by varying ultrasonic parameters in the USES process (i.e., frequency, pulse repetition frequency and cycles per pulse). We found that the USES technology produced nanofibers with higher fiber diameter (402 ± 127 nm) than TES (77 ± 21 nm). An increase of a burst count in USES increased the fiber diameter (555 ± 265 nm) and the variation in fiber size. The slight-to-moderate changes in a solid state (crystallinity) were detected when compared the nanofibers generated by TES and USES. In conclusion, USES provides a promising alternative for aqueous-based fabrication of nanofibrous DDSs for pharmaceutical and biomedical applications.

Highlights

Electrospinning (ES) is a method for fabricating polymeric nanofibrous constructs, which have potential applications in pharmaceutical and biomedical fields
The diameter of nanofibers produced by traditional ES (TES) was 77 ± 21 nm, and the diameter of the corresponding nanofibers generated by ultrasound-enhanced electrospinning (USES) were 402 ± 127 nm and 555 ± 265 nm
Significant difference (p< 0.001) was shown between the fiber diameter of nanofibers obtained with TES and the nanofibers generated with USES

Summary

Introduction

Electrospinning (ES) is a method for fabricating polymeric nanofibrous constructs, which have potential applications in pharmaceutical and biomedical fields. Nanofibers are typically tenth-to-hundred nanometers thick, they feature large outer surface, substantial surface- area-to-volume ratio, and high porosity (nanomats). This makes these fibers interesting for drug delivery and tissue engineering applications [1,2,3]. ES has been applied as a manufacturing method in the clothing, electronics and optical industries, and during the past twenty years it has gained increasing interest in the pharmaceutical and biomedical industries. Modified two-fluid and tri-fluid coaxial ES methods have been introduced to advance ES of even complicated nanostructures [8].

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